Cherry Hill: Be The Change
Climate change is here. Just in the past few months we’ve seen the wrath of Hurricane Ida rip through New Jersey. We helplessly watched fast and devastating flooding. People tragically died. Property has been destroyed. Schools have not been able to reopen. This past summer we witnessed raging wildfires in the Northwest, terrible loss of life, old growth forests destroyed, homes burned, toxic air for months. I know that I’m bracing myself for what will come next and wondering what life will be like for our children.
What can the average person do as we watch with horror as the planet heats up and storms become more frequent and much more intense? This past summer, I along with many other environmentally concerned Cherry Hill residents, worked with Food and Water Watch and collected more than 2,000 signatures from Cherry Hill residents to bring Community Choice Aggregation to our town. With CCA, the township will purchase bulk electricity on behalf of residents, taking advantage of discounted bulk rates. Community Choice Aggregation would give everyone the option to choose affordable clean energy, from sources like wind and solar, at rate. At rate, is key.
I have been asked about the cost to the average homeowner or apartment dweller. In other NJ towns like New Brunswick, which launched a similar program in 2019 and also won praise from Governor Phil Murphy, praise from the governor , consumers have seen a 5–10% cost savings on their electric bills. Unlike many of the third-party electricity options that are available now, CCA contracts are required to include fixed rates to protect residents from price spikes. CCA contracts are required to include fixed rates to protect residents from price spikes and that’s especially important as climate change accelerates, because we’re likely to see more rate spikes in the future. This is a win for our environment AND our budgets, especially for residents living on fixed incomes. A win-win!
This Tuesday, December 7th at 7:30PM, Cherry Hill town council members will take up this referendum. Our council has shown its concern for the environment and sustainability on the local level. Just last month the council awarded the Environmental Board with a proclamation for its work to become officially certified in the National Wildlife Federation’s Community Wildlife Habitat program, council awards environmental board.
I am hopeful that the council will see the wisdom in Community Choice Aggregation, listen to the residents and will move to ratify this referendum. While we wait and hope for environmental change at the federal level, locally we have this amazing opportunity to make the switch to renewable energy, to make a move that would actually keep fossil fuels in the ground where they belong, to make a commitment to stop the planet from overheating and above all, show that we will take action to make our corner of the world as clean and green as possible and to ensure that our children will have a future on this planet we call Earth.
